Hate is Just Another Word for Love
by DangerHeart
Summary: He likes her. He really, really likes her. But does she like him quite as much?
1. Chapter 1

**Hate is Just Another Word For Love**

**Dramione by DangerHeart**

Chapter One

Hermione caught herself not knowing what she was doing on her first lesson of the entire 6th year at Hogwarts.

Not a good start.

Professor Snape was giving them a lecture on the exact differences between a brew and a concoction. Sure, Hermione did know the difference, but that was no excuse for her to not be listening.

Was Draco Malfoy, sitting at the other side of the classroom, an excuse for her to not be listening?

_Of course not. But he had been._

'_Hermione, shake it off. Pay attention. Potions. Listen.'_ She thought to herself, taking a breath.

She was just as shocked about catching herself gazing at him as you and I would be, but she just let it go, like it was nothing at all.

But apparently, puberty had been very, _very _kind to Mr Malfoy since Hermione had last seen him.

'_She's looking at me, she's looking at me, __**why**__ is Granger looking at me?' _Draco thought, getting awkward in his seat.

So, she was looking at him. He didn't care. Why would he care that the Gryffindor Mudblood was looking at him? She was nothing to him. _Less than nothing._ And yet he still found that he was squirming in his seat to find a position that would make him look good.

It took him a while to realise that Professor Snape had told everybody to turn to a page in their books and follow the instructions there, because he was concentrating too much on-on..._her. Hermione Granger?_ Lots of things could avert Draco from his studies...But Hermione Granger?

That was something new.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hate is Just Another Word For Love**

**Dramione by Danger Heart**

Chapter Two

"Hermione, are you alright?" Harry asked Hermione on their way to the Great Hall for dinner that evening. "It's just, in potions earlier you seemed a bit, you know, not with it."

"Really? Well, um, I'm just not back into the, um, flow of school just yet." She replied weakly.

"Okay, then..." Harry didn't believe her, and Hermione knew he didn't.

She decided quickly to change the subject. "So...How was your summer?" She asked, with a weak smile.

"You know my summer was crap, Hermione. When did I last have a _nice_ summer?" he sighed.

"Well, okay, then." She was slightly taken back. "Harry, is something wrong?" she reached to put her hand on his shoulder as they walked down the corridor, but he batted it off.

"Hermione, by now you must realise that I don't appreciate it when people are lying to me." He came to a halt and gave her a stern look.

"I'm not lying to you, Harry." She said, avoiding eye contact.

"You're looking at the ground, Hermione, it's blatantly obvious, something's the matter and you aren't telling me!" His voice grew louder and people turned their heads.

"Harry, be quiet!" She hissed.

"No, no, Hermione, I _won't_ be quiet until you tell me why you are _lying_!" He was shouting by now, on purpose.

"Harry, _I'm fine_." She shouted back, anger beginning to grow.

"Yeah, whatever you say." He said loudly, before muttering, "Malfoy would think differently."

"What was that?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Nothing." He said, turning and sprinting through the crowds of students to get away from her.

He needed time to think.

_Previously, just at the end of Harry's Divination Class_

Harry couldn't wait to go and find Hermione and Ron, and eat some dinner. The three of them were separated for their final lesson of that day, and he had agreed to meet Hermione outside her History of Magic class and then go and get Ron from Muggle Studies.

Just as Harry was leaving to find Hermione, _Draco Malfoy_ stopped him in the hall.

"Hey Potter," he sniggered, with his typical 'Slytherin' attitude beaming. "Your little friend Granger seemed to be checking me out earlier in Potions."

"What?" Harry asked, shocked. Not that he believed Draco. Come on, _Hermione_ being interested in _Malfoy_? As if...Right?

"Nothing, Potter. But watch it, she couldn't keep her eyes off me..." He smirked and walked off, shoving Harry on the way.

'_WHAT...?' _Harry thought as he pushed his way to History of Magic.

Draco walked off, with his little posse of friends around him. They all thought-And Harry thought-Draco had been taking the mick out of Hermione for looking at him.

But Draco was boasting about how she had been looking at him, because he _liked it_.

_At dinner_

Hermione tried her best to push Harry to the back of her mind. But as she sat and nibbled on her piece of chicken, numbly, she couldn't think of anything _but_ what Harry had said.

Actually, I lie. She kept thinking about potions earlier, and Draco. She hadn't been looking at him. She absolutely had not been looking at Malfoy. Well, she actually had, but she refused to believe it, at least.

Draco couldn't stop thinking about her, either. He knew she had been checking him out from across the class. But he denied caring. Sitting, looking at the back of her head from where he was sitting, quietly at the Slytherin table, picking at the pasta he was supposed to be eating, he 100% denied caring that she had been looking at him.

If he denied caring, and she denied even looking at him, then why couldn't they escape from each other's minds?


	3. Chapter 3

**Hate is Just Another Word For Love**

**Dramione by DangerHeart**

Chapter Three

'_Right, Hermione. No more looking at Malfoy. Just pay attention, that's it. It's not like you like him anyway.'_

She was worried about Potions. Not only did she have to listen to Snape tell everyone about what she already knew, but it would be awkward if she ended up having to talk to him. Or see him. Or have him in the same room as her. Or the same castle.

Wherever she went, he seemed to be there. In the hallways, she always saw him. In the great hall she could always see him. In every lesson she could see him. He was completely _unavoidable_.

"Now class, I will be assigning you partners for this project." Sanpe announced, picking up a piece of parchment that he had written the list of partners on. "Harry Potter, you will be working with Luna Lovegood. Ronal Weasley, with Padma Patil, Dean Thomas with Lavendar Brown, Draco Malfoy with Hermione Granger-"

"WHAT?" Hermione and Draco shouted in sync.

"You two will be working together this year. Now continue from where you were yesterday, immediately." Snape told them both.

Hermione got up from her stool and went to sit in the empty one next to Draco.

"hey can't honestly expect me to work in such conditions." He mumbled. "With a mudblood as a work partner..."

"For goodness' sake Malfoy," Hermione sighed. "Deal with it."

"Deal with it?" he retorted, shaking his head. "I guess I'll have to, as long as you're the one doing the work."

Hermione just looked at him from the corner of her eye. She knew she should have hated his guts for saying that, but she just couldn't. Something had happened to her and it was stopping her from hating the sight of him. It was the mixture of her hormones and what puberty had awarded Draco with that did it to her. Her hands got clammy and her pulse began to speed up.

'_Draco, what are you doing?' _He asked himself in his head. _'She's a mudblood and everything, but just look at her!' _She had a cross between an angry look and an upset look on her face, as she attempted to slice something Draco wasn't paying attention to in half. As she sliced the things in half, the anger and sadness on her face all blended into concentration, and it took Draco a while to realise he was almost _dribbling_ from watching her. He closed his mouth and sat up straight, then focused on the small cauldron on their table.

Every now and then Hermione would throw a sharp look at him. _'What on Earth is he __**doing?**__' _She asked herself when she saw the look on his face at the point where he was in complete awe of her.

'_She's brilliant.' _He thought to himself. _'She's amazing. She's beautiful-Wait, what the hell am I saying? Draco, shut up. She's a mudblood and she's in Gryffindor. Forget it.'_

On the other side of the room, Harry concentrated on the two of them while Luna took charge of the brewing potion. Harry tried to help her but he really wasn't with it. He kept thinking about the way Draco had been looking at Hermione. As if he was in love with her. And she had been glancing at him as if she didn't hate his guts.

And he didn't like it one bit.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hate is Just Another Word For Love**

**Dramione by DangerHeart**

Chapter Four

'_They aren't-they just can't...Well, they surely don't have __**feelings **__for each other...Come on, Harry! As if. Maybe they just happened to not be arguing. Hermione and Draco would __**never **__like each other like that.' _Harry told himself. But he still didn't believe that they were the deadly enemies they had been for the past five years.

Harry waited impatiently for Snape to dismiss the class. He _really_ needed to talk to Hermione.

Well, maybe he didn't. What would he say? 'Hey, Hermione, I think you and Draco fancy each other.' They'd just end up arguing anyway. He decided to leave it. After all, the two of them might have just been off in a daydream that had nothing to do with each other, he reassured himself.

But he was wrong. Luckily he had fooled himself into thinking that they didn't have feelings for each other, when they really, _really _did.

Professor Snape dismissed the class and they all left. Draco seemed to have a little 'Stupid boy' moment. He grabbed his books and then ran after Hermione when she abruptly left the class room.

'Hermione!' he found himself calling after her. What was he _doing_? Sure, he'd come to terms with the fact he fancied her, but he was certainly not ready to announce it in the packed hallway.

"What do you _want, _Malfoy?" Hermione tried her best to make the tone of her voice appear angry and annoyed, but she couldn't help letting a sense of nerves and excitement slip in there too.

"Um, Hermione..." He mumbled, grabbing her arm and slipping into one of the alcoves in the castle walls. It was tight, just enough space for the two of them to stand in it.

"WHAT?" She shouted.

"Well..." He searched his mind for an excuse for why he would have talked to her. He could hardly say '_Well, Hermione, I really fancy you!' _could he? "Um...I just wanted to say...Um...you know how I had beef with Potter? Well, um, that wasn't your fault and sorry for, um, being a douchebag to you because I didn't like him and, um, I really have to go now." He threw the words out of his mouth in a messed up jumble, and he worried Hermione knew he liked her. The look on her face said it all.

Draco tried to slip out of the alcove and walk past her, but she was quick enough to grab his arm in time to stop him from going.

"Draco..." She whispered. "You called me Hermione..."

"I know. If I was going to apologise for being a dick then why would I have called by your _last _name?" He muttered. "Like I said, I have to go. See you later."

'_What was_ _**that**__, Draco? Talk about messing things up with a girl! BLOODY HELL!" _he was really kicking himself. When he spoke to her his hands had gone all clammy and he couldn't look in her eyes because they just melted into him. His knees had gone weak and he couldn't speak.

Hermione didn't feel that strongly towards him, she discovered. It was more like she fancied him a bit. No speech problems. No clammy hands. No weak knees. Well, none of those things when _he _had got them, anyway. Just a few little nerves.

The love bug had just-and only slightly-bitten Hermione, whereas with Draco, it had crawled in through his ear and laid eggs in his brain.

He had _never _felt like that before. And of all the people he could feel like that for, it was _her._

_**Hermione Granger.**_


End file.
